Articles > How To Lose Weight
The principle of weight loss is simple… take in less energy (calories) than the body needs so the body will begin using its fat stores for energy = weight loss.
This concept is often overlooked when fad diets are promoted, that claim you can eat as much as you like and still lose weight. These diets are often unbalanced and unsustainable for long periods of time. What we aim to do is to teach participants the principles of healthy eating & weight loss.
A safe weight loss is 0.5 - 1 kg per week and to do this you need to have a calorie deficit of ~500 per day.
This can be done by increasing your exercise and by reducing how much you eat. Losses of greater than 0.5-1kg per week are usually muscle loss rather than fat, which actually results in the bodies metabolism slowing down. This means keeping the weight off long-term will be much harder.
If your calorie intake is too low then the body adapts by lowering its metabolism so it doesn’t have to expend as many calories. In these situations the body is “conserving” its stores. The lower our metabolism gets the harder it is too lose weight therefore the aim in weight loss is to restrict dietary calories only moderately, so that our body does not go into starvation mode. It may seem like a slow process, but here the overall goal is to establish healthy eating patterns with weight loss that will be life-long.
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